First female duo wins world's top architecture prize

Two Irish women, Yvonne Farrell and Shelley McNamara, are the winners of the 2020 Pritzker Architecture Prize, which is regarded as the Nobel Prize of the architecture world, becoming just the fourth and fifth women and the first female duo to win the prize in its 41-year history. 
McNamara and Farrell have been architects and educators since the 1970s and created, along with three others, the Dublin-based firm Grafton Architects in 1978.
Pritzker appraised their work, saying that they create spaces ‘‘that are at once respectful and new, honouring history while demonstrating a mastery of the urban environment and craft of construction.’’
“They demonstrate incredible strength in their architecture, show deep relation to the local situation in all regards, establish different responses to each commission while maintaining the honesty of their work, and exceed the requirements of the field through responsibility and community,” stated Pritzker.
The two women’s firm has designed important buildings in Ireland, such as the new offices for Ireland’s Department of Finance in Dublin, while for the first time in 2003 it took on projects outside of Ireland. 
In 2008, Bocconi University’s Milan campus was completed based on their design and received the prize of World Building of the Year at the World Architecture Festival. The creation soon led Grafton Architects to become a leading designer of university buildings.
Among the most emblematic creations the firm produced is the University of Engineering and Technology’s campus in Lima, Peru that also won the RIBA International Prize in 2016.
Grafton Architects designed more academic institutions, including the University College Dublin, the Toulouse School of Economics. and the London School of Economics. 
Talking about winning the award, Farrell said “Architecture could be described as one of the most complex and important cultural activities on the planet… To be an architect is an enormous privilege. To win this prize is a wonderful endorsement of our belief in architecture. Thank you for this great honour.”
The first woman to have won the Pritzker Architecture Prize was as recently as in 2004, by Zaha Hadid. Kazuyo Sejima was the next woman to win the prize – along with Ryue Nishizawa – in 2010, followed by Carme Pigem in 2017.